My 'Double Rainbow' Moment, One Sunrise in Nags Head | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Many of us can still remember the 'double rainbow' moment from that 'Yosemite Bear' dude, made famous on his roundly viewed YouTube video, shown below, just a few years back. The inconsolable 'Yosemite Bear', so irrevocably verklempt by his vision of what might have been the most famous 'double rainbow' ever recorded for voyeuristic human consumption, had quite a moment, which became a YouTube sensation as recorded for perpetuity in his viral video below.


    I actually had a small 'double rainbow' moment on the way back from a county trip to New Orleans. My baby daughter and I were driving back to North Carolina, when a double rainbow similar, possibly fainter, to that of the 'Yosemite Bear' dude appeared just north of Montgomery, Alabama after a thunderstorm. By the time we could safely pull over on the interstate, the natural phenomenon had grown noticeably fainter, and the rainbow was too close to my lens's focal point to get the beginning and the end of the rainbow, so I shot the beginning stem, or was it the end(?). Regardless, it was a moment, although nothing like the all consuming moment for the 'Double Rainbow Dude'.
My 'double rainbow' moment, quickly growing fainter, in Alabama along Interstate 85: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage     Click the image to expand.
    Like the 'Yosemite Bear', most everyone has a 'double rainbow moment(s). My most recent 'double rainbow' moment was one warm October morning on a local North Carolina beach - Nags Head. I enjoy the beach in Autumn, especially when it only takes me 1 hour and 40 minutes from my backdoor to check-in. In early autumn the water is reasonably warm, but the day time air temperatures usually moderate between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This particular sunrise was an extremely comfortable climate on this cloudy morning.
This October morning was moist, with the faint vision of nimbus, cumulus and cirrus clouds presenting themselves as the morning sun awoke to rise: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click the image to expand.
    As soon as I walked onto the beach at that impressive moment in time, I knew that it would be an interesting sunrise with the initial color displaying so vividly at the onset, signifying that the sun was finding some way to represent its power of illumination even with all of the clouds present.
Not only was there plenty of moisture, there was plenty of structure in these clouds: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click the image to expand.
    I shot pictures, with the state of North Carolina's Jennette's Pier in the background, as steady as I could stay my hand as the breeze uncommonly picked up due to the impending storm that cleared up after the unique beginning of what turned out to be a beautiful day.
The colors within the complex structure of these uncommon October clouds was breathtaking: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click the image to expand.
    As the sunrise progressed, the light of the sun should have revealed itself, regardless of the clouds; however, these uncommon clouds were so thick with moisture, the young morning became darker, more ominous.
The complex muted colors, with a new sun expressing a diffused light gave the ocher hue of morning an otherworldly effect: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click the image to expand.
    Late into the sunrise, it just keeps getting darker as the rain picks up, and gusts in off the Atlantic Ocean. I quickly found my way upstairs and to the relative safety of my condo's balcony.
Darker clouds, the muted hues subside, and then the unrelenting rain: Above and then below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click the image to expand.